I met Chloé and Ashleigh through an outdoors trips alumnae group I am a part of and wanted to get some new photos. They have been married for 5 years so I am so happy they decided to celebrate their love and join me for a photo session! These two were also the sweetest and gifted me a REI gift card. I'm so excited about it that I don't know what to use it towards, ha! Do you ever hold onto gift cards for the perfect purchase and then don't use it for years?
Cheers to many more years you two! <3
Along with getting together to take a non-cheesy pregnancy announcement photo for Jessica and Alex to share (at the end of the post), we took advantage of getting together to take some gorgeous photos! This has to be one of my favorite sessions because it involves the Black Sands Beach and the Marin Headlands during golden hour. I was so excited when they wanted to meet here! I also really love Jessica's gold boots. I liked that they brought a little spunk to her outfit!
We started their session walking down to the beach and trying to avoid getting caught by the waves. These two didn't let the small pebbles in their shoes stop the fun and loving gazes to each other. As the sun was setting we walked up a small path from the parking lot and found the magical hillside that was drenched in the golden sun! It was basically a photographers dream, haha. And look at the magic they helped create!! I can give posing advice and directions, but 90% of the magic created is from my couples' connection to each other.
Congratulations on your next chapter and thank you for having me along to document it!!
If you're ready for some beachy, golden light goodness, keep scrolling!
These two are on top of their wedding planning! They aren't getting married for a year, but they couldn't wait to take their engagement photos. I am a little late in posting their engagement session... whoops! Not intentional at all because just look how adorable they are above! Clarisse was all smiles and Michael was all heart eyes for Clarisse.
We met at the Hayward Japanese Gardens, which Clarisse grew up visiting and these two even had a few dates there. We were expecting many more flowers, but we mostly got just all greenery. But we did find the few pink flowers to add a pop to their session!
Even though the sun was shining bright for them, we were able to navigate the gardens and find the shady spots and I made sure to back light them when the shade was hard to find. Wishing you two all the best in your wedding planning, and hopefully I can join you in Tahoe ;) More summery, infectious smiles engagement photos below!
Ready for the longest, but sweetest story?
Holy moly I have pretty much just had the best 10 days of my life (starting May 15th)!! My week started off with me thinking I had one week left at my full time job because I am going FULL TIME PHOTOGRAPHER! I have been at the coffee shop for 4 years and I have built my photography business from those connections so it has a special place in my heart. The community and staff and our owners have been the most supportive from the get go of my photography endeavor and I couldn’t thank them enough for all they have done. OK, I digress. I thought I had one week left there, and was excited and nervous. I thought going full time freelancer was going to be my big life change to start my thirties on an exciting journey. Boy was I wrong, ha. Lindsey asked to hang out in SF and do a MOMA/city living shoot for a brand she’s working with, so I went into the city after my shift and was kind of tired and didn’t really want to go, but I did. We spent a few hours together and she happened to have plans to meet her friend right near where our Monday soccer game was. What a coincidence, huh? Not really. It was all part of the plan (!!) And how she played it so cool when we were together, I don't know. Major props to you Linds!
We split ways and I head to soccer. Sean and I are on the same team and play the 50 minutes. I am oblivious to the team always passing the ball to him so he can try and score goals. Again, part of the plan! Post game, Sean says “let’s huddle up”. Uh sure, we don’t typically do that but okay. He starts telling the team how he really enjoys playing every Monday, it’s how we met, etc etc, and I’m standing there thinking “he’s feeling really sentimental,” but again, still oblivious to his plan. Next thing I know he’s saying he wants to play soccer with me for the rest of his life, getting down on one knee and asking will I marry him!!? Wait, what?! Of course YES, but wait what? Haha. And next thing I know there’s champagne being sprayed and all our friends running on the field and celebrating with us! HOLY SHIT is all I could say, over and over. Sean had been planning this for months and had it organized down to a “T”, including getting the league to switch the field we were scheduled to play one, since this was the field we first met on. Getting proposed to is such a special, emotional time and then to have all our friends running on the field, the field where we first met 6 years ago, was an emotion overload. It was SO special to have our friends, who are like family to us, there and able to celebrate in the excitement as well. I can’t imagine what the other teams who were getting ready to play thought. Apologies if we delayed your game! ;)
Post proposal we headed to a bar for more celebrating and showing off the bling and me continuing to say HOLY SHIT! After drinks, I thought we were getting a ride home from BenAnna, but then we pull up in front of a downtown hotel. What! It keeps getting better. Our friend Joel treated us to champagne and we kept buzzin’ off the excitement and love we felt from all our friends. Everyone did an amazing job and no one spilled the secret!!
But that's not the end of the surprises...
The next morning, Sean said “let’s check the weather” and opens up the weather app on his iPhone and it is showing Reykjavik's weather. Odd, that’s not San Francisco. He says, “looks like we’ll need coats” and proceed to bring out luggage that was hiding in the room closet!! Cue more HOLY SHITS! WHAT, WE’RE GOING TO ICELAND??! How could an amazing evening possibly get even better. Sean also planned a surprise trip to Iceland for nine days!! But wait, I was supposed to have one more week at the coffee shop. He emailed my manager and one of the owners to see if they could cover my shifts, which they were able to do. So that would make that Monday of our engagement my last day and starting this trip being a full time photographer. W O A H. Shit just got real! HA. And this was the one week I didn’t have any paid shoots planned and somehow it all worked out. Sean, with Anna’s help, had packed my suitcase for me and we headed to SFO from the hotel.
We proceeded to have the most amazing nine day exploration of Iceland. I have wanted to visit Iceland for years, pre it being super cool, so this was a jaw-dropping surprise. I didn’t think I would make it to Iceland for a while, I thought maybe for our future honeymoon whenever that happened. But instead, Sean is an amazing, thoughtful partner and planned this trip. We’re calling it our #agavemoon . Get it? ;)
Iceland is a beautiful country. We rented a car and were able to explore the island each day. We went down towards the South side of the island and then came back up to Reykjavik and up to the Westfjords. We ended up driving more than 2,000km and every kilometer was beautiful. I feel with each turn, we couldn’t believe the scenery. We definitely thought we were on Mars many times, with much of the landscape being barren lava fields with this beautiful green moss. And so many waterfalls! I am going to do a “views from the car window” post with all the pictures I took while driving!
And that is our engagement story! WOW <3 Now to enjoy this exciting time… and try not to think about planning a wedding yet. Being in the industry is definitely going to make it easier and more difficult to plan a wedding, haha.
Engaged or married couples, what is one piece of advice you have for me? I want to hear it all because I’m joining the party!!
Thank you for reading if you made it all the way here :)
XO WolfBot
Thank you SO MUCH Matt Glibbery and Lindsey Shea for the photos!! Having this moment captured is so special <3
Driving past Fairfax and turning down their dirt lane, pulling up to their family's ranch, sipping wine before their shoot, I knew this was going to be a special engagement session. These two have the biggest hearts and are putting so much love into their day. We decided on doing their engagement session on this family land as well, but in different areas than where the wedding is.
Allison was a champ in jumping over fences in her dress and George didn't mess up his dress clothes (and we weren't trespassing in the fence photos -- all is their land). Nothing can get in the way for these two :) I cannot wait for their wedding in July and see the transformation of their wedding site and celebrate the love and commitment to each other and their families.
One fun fact! Allison is great friends with one of my past brides of last year, Catie :) Their forest elopement has a special place in my heart too!
When Noah and Hannah suggested Point Reyes for their engagement session, I was super stoked! Point Reyes is their happy place and love to visit when they're feeling a city escape. We started off the evening with ice cream (+10 points in my book, hehe!) and walking around Point Reyes Station. It was still too bright to take their golden hour photos so we stopped in the local pub, that Noah has wanted to visit every time he visits here, but never has, making it the perfect place to wait out the light. After our little beers, we ventured out near this old barn and took some of the most magical, soft light photos.
Your engagement session is supposed to be YOU, so I love when my couples suggest a place special to them and then have fun with our time together! Ice cream, beer, fire trucks, and the yummiest light, SOLD!
Heather and Aniekan brought the spiciness and love to their shoot. It was a chilly day, but they didn't let that stop their style and it just made them cuddle even more! Heather is a fellow #girlboss in the e-commerce world, so of course she's rockin' those heels. I don't know how she did it! Thank you so much for having me along and giving me the tour of your neighborhood. Wishing I was joining you in Tuscany for your wedding ;)
OH MY GOSH! My dear friends Joey and Jane modeled for me this past Sunday and I have about died and gone to golden hour heaven. I really wanted to have some classic San Francisco shots in my portfolio, and the Golden Gate Bridge decided to show off and be amazing. Also, Karl the Fog was no where to be seen. We first went to Marshall's Beach, which is just north of Baker Beach (and I believe the nude section of the beach) but we lucked out and only saw fully clothed people. We ended at Sutro Baths chasing the light and it created a moodier, contrasting feel to finish out the shoot with. So in love! And these two are so in love as well!!
Yep, a shoot that dreams are made of <3
I would love to do another shoot or three here and explore more, so send me a "let's do this!" to: hi [at] chelseadier [dot] com
Ilan and Lauren's story starts with them meeting when they were both teaching at the Berkeley JCC, so we definitely had to get a few photos of them there. In the above photo they are actually standing between their respective classroom windows. Cue the "awwwww". Ilan and Lauren were so fun to shoot! They kept me laughing the whole time and they had too much fun. You'll see a few funny, but so them, shots below :) 
(no cute dogies were harmed for this shot. Serious was just so over his photoshoot ;))
(PROS!)
Daniel and Lauren also lucked out with their engagment session weather! The drive up to Skyline Gate was super foggy and I was sure we would be socked in, but the moment we started walking, the sun started shining. Woo! It must of known ;)
It was so great to explore new trails up in Redwood Regional Park with these two and they were such troopers with the hills and still looked this good!
See you two in August (and I hope we don't melt)!
((I love Daniel's hand expression in this one ^^ Such a guy thing, being like "whaaaat??" In a good way, of course ;)))
These two modeled for me all around Mt. Tam and they were pros! Candice has the best laugh and Nico is just the sweetest in the way he looks at her. I met these two through the coffee shop I work at, so it was rad to get to know them better and chat! Also, Candice MADE her and Nico's shirts! What a talented lady!
Now just imagine them in wedding attire and here's a preview of an #adventureelopement
George and Julieta are my first wedding of 2016! Whoop whoop! We did their engagement photos at Berkeley for multiple reasons. They both went to Berkeley, the campus is beautiful, and it's an East Bay staple. George and his daughters scouted some spots the day before, so we had a great time find all the good nooks and open spots of the campus. There are endless possibilities for photos! See you two in a month!
